Why He Calls Her Bones
by BookwormRose
Summary: A short segment, my take on why Booth insists on calling Temp Bones.


Why He Calls Her Bones

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything affiliated with this show, except for a couple of episodes I've taped that are currently lying around my house…**

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_She doesn't understand what she does to him. How she both intrigues and frustrates him. And she doesn't understand why he calls her Bones. At first he did it to annoy her, to keep her in her place. She was, after all, a squint, a tool, a means to an end. Then, as time progressed, he continued to call her Bones because that was who and what she was; nothing else fit her so well. But, now, not even that reason suffices. For while it is still who she is, he has come to find that there is so much more to her than bones, though she hides it well. He briefly wonders if it is simply habit that keeps him from calling her Brennan, and propriety from calling her Temp (heaven forbid he call her Temperance). But even as he wonders, he knows better, and yet she still wouldn't understand. He can't stop because in that name lies hidden everything he doesn't want her to know and behind it everything she doesn't want him to see. No, she'll never know the tenderness and frustration that he feels every time he calls out the name _he _gave her…_

_----_

"Bones!"

Brennan looks up from her work with mild annoyance etched in her face, "Why do you insist on calling me that?"

Booth, hands in his back pockets, walks up to look at her latest project, "Would you like me to stop?" his tone one of mild inquiry.

"Yes as a matter of fact I—" The words spill out of Temp's mouth automatically until her brain catches up with her, assuaging her with doubts. Of course she wants him to stop calling her that ridiculous name, doesn't she? _That name is his way of letting you know who's in charge, a power play, to prove his superiority!_ But somehow she can't make herself buy that logic. Booth hasn't treated her like an inferior in, well, in a long time, since their early cases.

Booth watches Bones nervously. If she truly wants him to, he _will_ stop calling her Bones, even though it might kill him to do so. _Doesn't she see! No, of course she doesn't…_ "Bones—" The word, the one word that contains everything, comes out before he can stop it, and he silently curses himself for being so weak.

Hearing him call her that, in a voice that she hardly recognizes, the emotions and enigmatic meaning leave Temp unknowing and stunned. For the first time she can remember, Temperance Brennan wants nothing more than to be _Bones_, to be who he thinks she is. She had seen Booth show emotion: disgust, anger, even the occasional smile or laugh, but never this, never with her. His voice had been raw and desperate, a single communication of something he needs her to know, something that she still cannot comprehend. _Damn him! Why are emotions so cryptic? Bones, bones hold very few secrets from me that I can't eventually figure out. But this isn't bone, and Booth's always been the one to…damn him! _Temp's thoughts began swirling in on themselves so fast that she could no longer put them into words, thoughts, impressions and memories chasing each other only added to her confusion.

Booth's body froze the minute he uttered that one devastating word, sure that everything was going to come tumbling down. Now he can do nothing but look at Bones, unable to make sense of what flashes across her face, except for a moment when she seems so vulnerable, a mere child and frightened. He wants to hold her, to stroke her hair and murmur quietly that everything's going to be alright, but should he? Here he stands with everything on the line, everything exposed, waiting for some hint from her, and yet as he sees her, torn, it all becomes unimportant. _She_ is the only thing that matters: his Bones.

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**I hope this is original, leastways I've not read anything like it, but that's not saying much. I guess you could say that it is my reaction to the fics (not that they aren't wonderful) who have Booth finally calling Bones by her given name, and well, maybe I just like her nickname, but I wanted something where "Bones" has more meaning than a petty annoyance, to give it significance, and to perhaps give at least a hint of Brennan starting to see that there is more in that nickname than she probably ever imagined. **

**I don't know if this is going to remain a one-shot or not, it all depends on you, my lovelies! So review and tell me what you think! Please? **_You know you want to…_


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